57th-BC War
The 57th-BC War was a short, small-scale war between the 57th Overlanders and the Browncoats and their allies. 57th declared pre-emptive war after having accepted intel from a disgruntled Browncoats member during the TPF War showing that the Browncoats were voting on aggressively attacking 57th alongside Browncoats' then-OPD partner Cult of Justitia. Underlying Tensions While this war lasted only one day, it cannot be truly understood without a knowledge of the tensions that had gone on for years between many of the combatants, especially Veneke, Captain of 57th, Asriel Belacqua and Nintenderek of Browncoats, and Schattenmann of Cult of Justitia. All four, as well as many members of Browncoats and 57th Overlanders besides, were members of the first Browncoats. Schattenmann and Nintenderek joined after the disbandment of Purge, while Veneke and Asriel were already members. Within a few weeks, Veneke and Schattenmann developed a bitter mutual dislike, Veneke having put Schattenmann on trial for expulsion for shooting his mouth off at the CIS Senator for the Black sphere. Later, Veneke and Asriel left Browncoats to found Hegemony of Periphery States, drawing disdain from remaining Browncoats including Schattenmann and Nintenderek. Within a few weeks of that incident, Schattenmann became a greater object of Asriel and Veneke's hate when his BDC-BC War/The Shadow Conspiracy failed, effectively destroying Browncoats; Veneke also blamed Nintenderek for the scheme despite his exclusion from the planning. HPS later changed its name to 57th Overlanders. Though Veneke and many other Overlanders maintain their dislike for Schattenmann, Asriel, Nintenderek, and Schattenmann have made amends and come to an understanding of each other. Several months after 57th's creation, Asriel and Nintenderek re-created Browncoats (2nd), and Schattenmann's Cult of Justitia immediately signed and ODP with the new Browncoats; however, Veneke and 57th Lieutenant Lord Panda virulently opposed the alliance's reformation. 57th also accuses Browncoats of member-poaching a longtime friend of Asriel's. 57th continues to spurn Browncoats by maintaining ownership of the #browncoats channel as well as taking the original Browncoats' forum offline. Both 57th and Browncoats also compete in their Firefly television series theme. The Question of "Aggression" As planning for the TPF War went on, strategists in the SuperComplaints coalition assigned Nemesis to counter-declare on alliances which might attack IAA, presumably 57th Overlanders. Nemesis in turn invited Cult of Justitia to enter at the same time via their optional aggression clause. Learning that the presumed target was 57th Overlanders, Schattenmann notified Browncoats. Reasoning that, due to their small size, the entry of Browncoats through their ODP with CoJ would be negligible, Schattenmann suggested that Browncoats upgrade their treaty to include optional aggression so that Nemesis, CoJ, and Browncoats might all declare simultaneously. At the time, Nemesis had around 30 nations, while 57th Overlanders had just over 50; together, the three alliances would have nearly as many nations as 57th Overlanders. Asriel and Nintenderek supported the plan and put the idea of an upgrade before the membership to gauage their opinion via a straw poll. The plan had marginal support; however, StraightUpNoBull (SUNB), Browncoats' Minister of Defense, took issue with the idea of upgrading the treaty to allow for a simultaneous entry, and announced his resignation. Before leaving, SUNB took screenshots of the membership poll, but not of the government-level discussions, and then passed the screenshots on to 57th Overlanders. The problem with 57th's war begins with the screenshots they were given. In the membership poll that SUNB spied away to 57th, Nintenderek did not clearly explain the process by which Browncoats would enter the war. Rather than asking "should Browncoats upgrade its treaty with CoJ to the inclusion of an optinal aggression clause in order that we may attack 57th at the same time as CoJ if CoJ and Nemesis counter-declare on 57th?"—the treaty upgrade being the pivotal point—Nintenderek said: ". . . if CoJ does declare on 57th, they've asked for our help . . ." continuing, "I think we should defend of Justitia even if it's an defense treaty and we would be going in aggressively." Because the member poll did not adequately convey that the treaty would be upgraded to an ODOAP to allow for Browncoats' legal entry into the war at the same time as CoJ, and because SUNB in turn only presented that flawed conveyance to 57th Overlanders, Veneke and his government in turn assumed that Browncoats intended to bandwagon 57th Overlanders in a spiteful manner. Despite the problems in the intelligence that 57th received, the address by Nintnderek to the Browncoats membership makes clear that Browncoats only intended to go to war if Nemesis and CoJ went to war, and further that 57th Overlanders was not the certain target, but was only the anticipated target. Nintenderek's address as provided to 57th clearly states "if the 57th doesn't declare in defense of their allies first, then we won't be hitting them with CoJ and Nemesis." Regardless, of the information that Asriel, Browncoats Prime Minister, was against the upgrade, and the high level of treaty-cascading needed for the scenario to actually occur, 57th decided to interpret the very limited amount of intelligence available to them as a rock-solid offensive by Browncoats—an 8-nation alliance—against themselves, and to pre-emptively attack Browncoats. Ironically, just a few weeks later TOP and IRON would repeat 57th's blunder. Initial Peace Talks Peace talks were convened within minutes of the counter-declarations on 57th Overlanders. Browncoats offered very light terms, but 57th's then-Lieutenant (second in command) refused, claiming that 57th would eradicate Browncoats. Ivan Moldavi attended as a Brown advocate despite NSO's often-public dislike for 57th. One criticism about the attack was its timing, since the initial DoW came about one minute after the white peace declaration in the TPF War. This effectively negated the 57th casus belli as the 57th could no longer be ambushed. Accordingly the war ended less than 18 hours after it began, with all sides announcing white peace. Related Links *57th. Overlanders DoW against Browncoats *CoJ and Nemesis DoW against 57th. Overlanders *LoSS' DoW against 57th. Overlanders *End of Hostilities Gallery File:57thjan22010.png|57th stats - 2 Jan 2010 File:Bcjan22010.png|BC stats - 2 Jan 2010 File:Cojjan22010.png|CoJ stats - 2 Jan 2010 File:Nemjan22010.png|Nemeisis stats - 2 Jan 2010 File:Lossjan22010.png|LoSS stats - 2 Jan 2010 See also